November 29, 2010

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BLOGS

Date:  11/22/2010, 9:36 am

Name:  2 - 552

Your a little off base. "Super Wal-Mart is the Angel of Death for downtown retailers in a failed CRA district. Empirically speaking" This is wrong - downtown is its own Angel of Death. They can't offer products people want at prices people are willing to pay. Only areas with very large populations have been able to save retail in main street settings. You have to have enough people who want candles, toe-socks, kites, spices or other specialty items that are high profit and obscure. NSB has done everything to stop growth thus hastening their own demise. Flair is her own worst enemy. Canal Street is dead for retail. Putting more CRA and grant money into Southern Trends and other properties is fraud. They will only live if lawyers and professionals who need little traffic take over. Retailers fight this trend as it accelerates their closure. If these people were in charge the milkman would still be delivering to your house because the grocery store would not be allowed to sell it.

Date:  11/23/2010, 1:57 am

Name:  To 568

Read it Again. It also says the city will most likely prevail. Secondly there is no opposing opinion that contradicts it; Gummy never rendered an opinion that said the lease was valid. He carefully avoided doing so, like he does with all of his advice, which is rarely written and when spoken is mumbo jumbo.

Finally, if you read the first or second page of Glasses opinion, you will find the statement that the lease was invalid from the start, not most probably; ab initio, if I remember correctly.

While Glass did recommend renegotiation of the lease, that is a normal course of action in most cases like this from about any attorney. Declaratory judgments, properly prepared, cost little especially when you have a $220,000 plus legal talent already employed. We already pay Gummy and his staff. Remember if you get him off his rear he is not a bad lawyer.

As to the renegotiation of the lease, no effort was made by either the City or the Club to do so; the less than adequate offer at the end by the Club was smoke screen to let the CC off the hook, knowing full well what they were attempting violated numerous sections of city, state and other codes.

Thanks for your legal advice Guy. Now go back to your sailboat, the rubber ducky is sinking.

Date:  11/22/2010, 11:30 am

Name:  The Guy Next Door

Well here I am in NSB and every time I read the newspaper I wonder how this collection of idiots, including "classy" with the white hose, ever got elected. Then I read the finance reports of the recent selectees and it gets really clear; the public unions and the special interest groups, e.g., MDC and the Anglers Club, paid for their campaigns. In essence they are bought and paid for without a doubt.

And that is directed at Jack, Adam, and Judy, two of whom promised in their printed and mailed campaign literature to reduce taxes and restructure the government. What a joke.

So what have they accomplished? They hired an over the hill city Manager at more than she is worth after she accused them of sex discrimination. They continue to allow an over the hill lawyer to rape the city taxpayer every day he comes to work with a salary equal to or greater than a U.S. Supreme court Justice; and that despite the fact he has a terrible track record in court. They allow the MDC to continue to leech money from the taxpayer, despite claiming they are in a deficient budget (the Old High School fiasco). They let a CRA be a private playpen for the old guard, spending money to light up their Christmas Parties and add decorations and lights to a street (Canal) that is empty and closed after dark. They allow a club to pay $25 per year on a piece of property worth over two million dollars despite having a legal opinion that says the lease is not valid. And they let a Parks and Recreation director continue to earn over $100k in a town with a service population of less than 24,000 and very few parks.

Wow there is so much more, but it just depresses me to think about it. I shutter to think of what they gave away my hard earned dollars on today. But hen how could I know, because our mayor, the boy wonder Adam with the on-line degrees, refuses to make the City Clerk provide timely meeting minutes in accordance with the law. That coupled with the postage stamp advertisement for the recent attempt at a zoning fix, makes one think that Huey Long is alive and well in NSB.

Where is that organization called FDLE when you need them? Oh well, back to the coffee with shot of Jack and it will seem better.

NOTES

1. THE SHADOW MUFFED IT

The owner of the Pine Street house had to buy flood insurance. Wow. Pay him back. He had to spend some money for flood insurance while waiting to be bought out from the house he bought knowing it had flooded.   Hey, that is one the City’s explanation, but it was verbal and we missed it. Wow.  We reimbursed the owner for flood insurance!

2. THE CALORE CANAL CONTRACT FOR DREDGING

The contract for the dredging of the Calore Canal (almost $30,000) is to be approved tomorrow night (pp. 234 et.seq.) Perhaps the City Commissioners are unaware that the Florida Inland Navigation District award of $15,000 has been challenged as improper and based on misinformation supplied by the City Commission. What do you think the Governor elect will think about this item? We thought someone might also tell him about Esther Street.

3. THE CITY FLOATING DOCK

The floating dock funded by the Florida Inland Navigation District granted the City $160,000 for the water taxi fiasco. $60,000 was used to buy a floating dock, which the City owns (taken from City Cerk e-mail ). (pp et. seq.). How about moving it to Manatee Park (in front of the Brannon Center) so that boaters can dok and walk to Canal Street to eat and shop,or sell it? We expect that the City’s report to the Department of Transportation about the five year disaster of the water taxi will make excellent reading---probably fiction.  It was built solely for the water taxi and that is gone.

THE FAILURE TO PUBLISH THE CITY MINUTES

We do not have high hopes that the city will follow the law and publish the City minutes in the week following the last meeting.  Last week they requested approval of minutes from June 8 and a workshop on June 30th. On November 9th they approved minutes from May. Do they even recall what they did last May?

DEAR PAM

As we have stated in the past, we realize that various City officials have limited resources available for pursuing cost reduction projects, so we have decided to help them out and provide draft letters for review. As we have said, this will free them up for important things, like dealing with all the serious problems of the police and fire department pensions.

Dear Mayor Barringer,

Everybody knows that you are totally in my control. I do not think in the future I will consult with you on any thing of importance. No need to waste your time.  After all you are only the Mayor  with no authority, but I’m the big boss with all the authority!

PAM

THE CITY MANAGER AND HER MINIONS ARE HIRING OTHERS TO DO THEIR JOBS OF MANAGING THE CITY!  WELL, THEY ARE CHANGING THE RULES SO YOU DO NOT HAVE TO NOTIFY THEM OF THE DESIRE TO SPEAK AT A COMMISSION MEETING.  WELL, THEY ARE CHANGING THE RULES SO YOU DO NOT HAVE TO NOTIFY THEM OF THE DESIRE TO SPEAK AT A COMMISSION MEETING.  Does that mean that anyone can speak to any issue at any time? Or does it mean that there is no opportunity to speak at Commission meetings except for the three minutes for each person after the Consent calendar?  If the latter the Governor should remove the Commissioners if they vote this into practice.

REVIEW OF THE AGENDA

The last Commission Agenda (November 9, 2010) included outrageous spending bombs that cost the City or the Feds hundreds of thousands of dollars for frivolous or unneeded expenditures. And added to the outrage was the phony report to make it falsely appear that the Municipal Golf Course was not still operating in the red. MORE

These are the most egregious consultant grants. We are paying management to make these analyses and not to pay some else to do it for them. For the Calore Canal, See Note 2 below.  we planted trees in the City street and extended our driveways. “The City Commissioners then passed rules limiting hours of fishing. The Commission even made the parking “handicapped” spaces and told the police to increase patrolling. The best was that the thieves of public property even had a Commissioner in their pocket who wanted to call them “pocket parks” and ride his bike back and forth over the new illegal drive.

2.  INFLUENCE AND ARROGANCE IS EVERYTHING: IN NEW SMYRNA BEACH WE PLANT TREES IN THE STREET

”We do not want blacks and Hispanics fishing next to our house, they leave trash and urinate in the  bushes,  so 

The Shadow believes that the City should name it "Red Neck Park". MORE

3. WHAT RESERVES, WE (SHE) SPENT THEM

Last year the City of New Smyrna Beach auditor ratted out the management. That is what they are supposed to do. Among other auditor demand, the auditor made the City take out of the reserves $3.5 million that was being carried as a loan payable by the Municipal Golf Course. MORE

THE SHADOW BELIEVES THE CITY COMMISSIONERS

WILL TRY TO GIVE THEM THE $60,000 FLOATING DOCK.

REMEMBER THEY GAVE THEM THE $50,000 PONTOON

BOAT!!. SELL IT AND GIVE THE MONEY BACK TO THE

TAXPAYERS.